


how you doing? ms. lonely, nice to meet you

by shiiera



Series: you stole my heart and i couldn't leave you if i tried [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Explicit Language, F/M, Jogging in the Park, Older Woman/Younger Man, Trains, fluff-ish, out of chronological order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 10:40:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14735426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiiera/pseuds/shiiera
Summary: There’s one thing about Ben that Rey will admit that she likes about him. Truly likes; not any of the superficial bullshit that she loves to take advantage of after sex. It's that one thing that makes those stupid fucking butterflies decide to flutter in her stomach and her not want to spray pesticide on them. That one thing that makes her forget all her reservations about him for the briefest of moments.He never lies.Part IV of a series of one-shots focused on an AU where Rey is older than Ben and they're just really bad at relationships.





	how you doing? ms. lonely, nice to meet you

**Author's Note:**

> as usual, not beta'd.

“ You look happier than normal,” Armitage Hux remarks between puffs of air. “ Usually you’re grumpy and mopey.”

“ I found someone, Hux,” Ben says. He’s practically radiating and it’s not due to the sheen of sweat on his skin from their jog through Central Park. He is actually smiling and has a pep in his step that Hux has not seen since, well, ever. “ She’s just amazing.”

They make a right turn into an underpass and keep running. A family of tourists are just up ahead of the jogging pair, but they make sure to swerve around them, never breaking stride with each other. It was almost eerie to Hux how in step the two of them were, especially considering they’ve spent the most of their life as rivals in practically everything. Academics, sports, volunteering, the list could go on -- it was almost embarrassing to the extent of which Hux and Solo would compete. 

Yet, in some odd streak of irony, they were each other’s closest confidants. Two kids, both an only child, born into money and legacies that neither of them asked for yet be demanded that they meet it, or even surpass it.

Luckily, all Hux had to do was become a scientist and continue in the footsteps of his father. Ben, well, poor kid. He had to become the President. 

“ I guess that’s why you haven’t been in class these last few weeks,” Hux slows his pace down to a walk and Ben follows. He wipes the sweat off his brow with the back of his long sleeve compression shirt, “ They were asking about you. Phasma, especially. Rumors swirling that you’re about a week away from academic probation.”

School. Yeah, that thing that he was supposed to be attending. He’s been bullshitting his mother on the phone since the Fall semester started: Oh, yeah. I’m doing  _ great _ in school. Learning a lot about civil rights and all of that. Yeah, they did bring up Grandfather. 

He knows that she doesn’t believe him but it’s not like she’s privy to any of his academic records. Besides, the tuition has been paid for and his family gave New York University’s School of Law a wonderful donation that earned his parent’s name in beautiful gold serif, adorning the entryway to one of the lecture halls -- The General Han Solo and Senator Leia Skywalker-Solo Lecture Hall. If that donation wasn’t an attempt at hush money for their son’s future tresspasses at the school, Ben didn’t know what other reason why Han Solo, his sardonic father, would ever agree to have his name attached to a stuffy building like the one at NYU.

“ I’m taking online classes.” Ben says before checking his iWatch for his heart rate. 

“ Bullshit.”

He’s keeping a good rate. His lungs feel great. 

“ Swear to god.”

God damn, Ben feels absolutely  _ amazing _ .

“ And I’m the ginger buddha.” Hux rocks on the balls of his feet as he puts his hands on his hips. “ Get it? Because it doesn’t exist, just like your online classes, you fucking twat.”

The autumn leaves are finally showing their colors in Central Park and autumn’s chill has finally reared it’s wonderful itself to the city. Majority of those around the two graduate students are dressed in the obligatory coats and boots that are the a-typical norm for fall fashion, but Ben is is dressed in nothing but black basketball shorts and a black unzipped track suit jacket. Hux swears his childhood frenemy is going to catch some pneumonia and die. At least the redhead can be comforted to know that he won’t be dying from pneumonia in his heattech.

Comparisons to being an extra from Tron notwithstanding.

“ Stop worrying about what I’m doing and focus on what you’re doing, Hux.” 

Hux looks at Ben from the corner of his eyes and mumbles something under his breath -- something about over privileged kids -- and cards his fingers through his sweat drenched hair with a loud sigh. 

“ Well, guess we can talk about that girl or whatever. Who is she? Someone I know?”

“ No. She’s no one you know.”

They continue walking down Center Drive, occasionally weaving through the tourists taking pictures of the fall foliage. Twenty years ago, the two men would have been excited to run and jump in the leaves, but now they just want to get out of the park. You’ve seen one red oak leaf, you’ve seen them all, as Han would say whenever Leia would insist on having a fall picnic in Central Park. Ben thought his father was being a grump at the time but now he understood the man.

They can see the exit and the onslaught of cars that race down West 59th Street. It’s the signal that it's time for them to part ways and never speak to each other again for another week. Blissfully ignoring each other until they meet up at the Central Drive entrance to the park. They had a weird relationship, according to their mutual friends, but it worked. That’s all that mattered at the end of the day, anyway. 

If the shit ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Another wise Solo saying.

“ Does she attend NYU? Grad student? Undergrad?” Hux presses on as they near the entrance. Time’s running out and he needs all the juicy details so he can go back to Phasma and Mikata with the scoop. 

Ben cards his fingers through his sweat drenched hair with a sigh, “ No, Hux. She’s not in school.”

“ Oh.” The ginger makes a face. The Senator won’t be too happy about this one, “ How old?”

“ Thirty two.”

Yeah, Senator Skywalker will not be appreciating this one bit. “ … Oh.”

“ I think I got a thing for older women. I didn’t think so before but now? Yeah, I definitely have a thing for older women. She just gets  _ right _ to the heart of it, you know?”

“ I, mean, I guess. I wouldn’t necessarily know…” Hux shrugs because, well, what else can he offer to this conversation. It’s not like he’s avoiding grad school because he has a girlfriend. This was one of those conversations where it was best that he did not say anything and just listen. The Skywalker-Solo family was notoriously known for their political dynasty but it was definitely not without several incidents.

Anakin Skywalker’s assassination, Padme Skywalker’s subsequential mental breakdown years later, and Luke Skywalker’s cult thing that no one really knew what that was all about. There was also that whole period with Leia Skywalker hanging out at every club in New York getting high when she was a teenager, but no one actually remembers that because she’s married to a war hero and a respected senator. That was just her ‘acting out’ all that pent up trauma and frustration from her childhood.

Either way, the family is fucked up and it looks like apple did not fall far from the tree at all. Actually, Hux is sure that apple named Ben is still hanging from the tree, along with the other strange apples. A bunch of apples unable to fall, kept together by a cursed tree. 

“ You sound skeptical, Hux.” Ben says once they reach the entrance of the park. 59th Street is crowded with tourists and weekend shoppers and they’re just another pair of bodies in a crowd full of nameless people.

“ Has your mother met her yet?”

“ She doesn’t have to know.”

Hux chuckles. What a fucking trainwreck, “ If there was a way to get completely written off the will, that would be the way to do it. Congratulations on throwing away a multi-million dollar fortune.”

Ben’s jaw moves ever so slightly but he doesn’t look at Hux. No, he won’t give the sniveling rat the pleasure in knowing he got under his skin this time. 

“ I think I’ll be heading home now. Nice chat. Great work out. See you next week.”

Hux yells something at him as he walks towards Park Avenue but Ben could care less. Something about not being able to hide forever or whatever. It does not matter. The guy was not important to him; he was just something that he dealt with. A constant variable in his life. Never changing, always static. If he played his cards like how his mother wanted him to, Hux would always be there at his side, eventually becoming his Chief of Staff once he becomes the fifty-something President of the United States. That’s how things like that worked. The parents arranged the relationships from childhood, hope that the kids stay together throughout school, and eventually build partnerships that would strengthen the each others’ family legacy.

It’s modern day monarchism at it’s finest. 

Ben’s iPhone rings and he answers it immediately. He already knows who’s on the other line -- the ringtone gives it away.

“ Rey.” He says almost breathlessly. He could hear a groan coming from her end of the line and he can’t help but grin. Ah, he just loved getting under her skin. Find the buttons and press them all.

“ I’m at Grand Central and I’m bored out my mind.” There’s a pause, and then a quiet, ” Poe abandoned me.”

“ Why did Poe abandon you this time?” Ben can see the Lexington Avenue train station and picks up the pace. “ You two are  _ always _ together.”

“ … Connix.” There’s an exasperated sigh full of so many questions that Ben wants to ask but doesn’t. He will save those for another time when the alcohol is flowing and the room stinks of cigarettes. 

He can hear the loud noise of people walking and talking around Rey. Yeah, she’s at Grand Central. 

“ It’s his girlfriend.” Rey continues dryly. “ She needs some help at her place or something. Anyway, I don’t care and I have nothing to do and I didn’t spend two seventy-five for nothing. Okay? Are you coming? You live like ten blocks away.”

“ Twenty five.”

“ Same difference.”

“ I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. “

There’s one thing about Ben that Rey will admit that she likes about him. Truly likes — not any of the superficial bullshit that she loves to take advantage of after sex. It's that one thing that makes those stupid fucking butterflies decide to flutter in her stomach and her not want to spray pesticide on them. That one thing that makes her forget all her reservations about him for the briefest of moments.

He never lies.

Ben is many things but a liar isn’t one of them. That honesty chips away at the brick wall surrounding her heart. Every fulfilled promised is another piece chipped away.

Fifteen minutes later and he’s standing in front of her as she stands next to the clock at the information desk. He looks stupid in his basketball shorts and tracksuit jacket -- so  _ fucking _ stupid -- but she can’t help but smile at him. It’s a small smile but it reaches her eyes and he watches her as if he’s falling in love with her for the first time. People walk between them completely unaware. There’s trains to catch and places to be; no one cares for the two individuals looking at each other with genuine feelings that scream wordlessly: I fucking love you.

Rey runs up to him and pockets her hands into her black skinny jeans. She gives him a once over and then rocks on the balls of her feet, as if in thought, then she takes her hands out of her pockets and zips up his jacket part way. She takes off her navy scarf and wraps it around his neck.

“ You do know its forty five degrees outside, right?”

He grins sheepishly, “ Yeah, I kind of do.”

“ Wanna ride the shuttle for a while?” Rey says nonchalant with a shrug. She won’t let him know that the birds are singing in her mind’s theater and that the hills are alive. No, she’ll just take those emotions, pack them in a box, and lock them away with a key with the other emotions she keeps locked away from the world. 

Ben doesn’t know how long they’ve been riding between Grand Central and Times Square. It has to be at least an hour. Maybe. Probably. It doesn’t matter. The time spent on that train is insignificant to him; he could spend the rest of his life on that dirty subway if it meant Rey would be sitting next to him with her delicate hand intertwined with his own. They’re the only ones in the car most of the time as they ride back and forth between the two stations. They don’t say anything to each other. He doesn’t ask her any questions and she doesn’t bother to answer him. They just sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company.

It’s the first time in their relationship that doesn’t end with them having sex and for some unknown reason Rey isn’t scared at all of it.

On the twentieth departure from 42nd Street and Time Square, as the doors close, Rey rests her head against Ben’s shoulder and lets the sway of the train lull her into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> i write these one-shots to music. each one-shot, except for one, are lyrics from the song that inspired the work. this chapter's? tyler the creator's 911/mr. lonely. 
> 
> part iii was written to sly and the family stone's hot fun in the summertime.
> 
> this takes place shortly after part ii and **way before** part iii.
> 
> the overwhelming response to this series is what keeps me writing. thank you all so much for your comments!!! 
> 
>  
> 
> [muh tumblrs](http://shiiiera.tumblr.com/)


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